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How do you begin to create a program for a phone?
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this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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If you're building for apple, yes you have to use xcode. You don't need to use swift but that's Apple's first class supported language, it'll probably be the easiest to get up and running. React Native or Dart also work. Regardless of language, you'll still need xcode to package the app. Android Studio is similar on the Google side, they use Kotlin as their primary language.
Got it, thanks. I guess I'm off to install swift and get an xcode 'replacement' (looks like xtool is the top result when I looked?) to start playing with. AND the language is installed by installing an installer manager first ? Grumble, grumble I already have a package manager, harrumph.
I shouldn't be surprised that apple would nearly require a person to be using a mac, but somehow it still is frustrating that being on linux will make this harder.
You have any advice on the swift/xcode thing with linux (arch variants, specifically, if that helps narrow it down)?
Heh.. yaah welcome to apple. Uh, to be honest you probably want a mac. Back when I was playing in that sandbox I invested in a second hand mac mini.. it was less than ideal but not unbearable. At the time developing off a Mac meant no access to apple SDK and the iOS simulator, the SDK has all the good device integrations and the simulator is very useful for testing before waiting for a full build on testflight. The path you're treading, based on my experiences, strikes me as a difficult one but maybe someone can chime if the outside-mac environment has improved.
Given your constraint I suggest leaning more towards react native, you can debug/run that locally in linux, and check out subscribing to something like expo / esd to package, sign and send the app to testflight. Could be cheaper short term than buying a mac.
I haven't used this approach myself, but that is the angle I'd consider without the hardware. Orr like others have suggested start with building a PWA and access as a website.
Edit - to be clear I'm not trying to entirely discourage the approach you found. Give it a solid 4 hour attempt and see how it works out then keep going if you get a useful result, that's basically app development.